mardi 23 juin 2009

Turkish PM says PKK still finds supporters in Europe

ANKARA, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) can still find supporters in Europe. Speaking at a luncheon with ambassadors of European Union (EU) member states to Turkey, Erdogan said "the terrorist organization PKK, which has the opportunity to exist and live in the north of Iraq, can still find supporters in some European countries." Erdogan said that Turkey was facing threats of terrorist attacks that had international dimensions. "Despite all our warnings, we cannot get the support we are expecting from some countries to cut the financial sources of the terrorist organization, to provide no grounds for terrorist propaganda, and to extradite the assailants," Erdogan said. Erdogan said terrorism was also globalizing and those who were remaining indifferent to a terrorist organization today should not ignore the possibility that this terrorism might hit them one day. "We hope Europe will take joint action and assume a common attitude against terrorism," he said. Turkish security forces have conducted frequent operations against PKK militants in eastern and southeastern Turkey. The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. So far, some 40,000 people have been killed in the past two-decade conflicts. Turkey's military forces have taken tougher actions against the PKK after the country's legislature extended the government's mandate to launch cross-border operations against the rebels in northern Iraq.